Social Media

Dasha Chukrova’s absurd animations inspired by Nickelodeon

Moscow-based Dasha Chukhrova’s interest in animation and illustration grew from watching odd cartoons on Nickelodeon. Since then, she has always been fascinated by “weird and ambiguous stories that have bizarre characters,” she tells It’s Nice That. “I believe all these great animations like, SpongeBob SquarePants, Aaah!!! Real Monsters and Purple and Brown have somehow affected my visual language and approach to storytelling.”

Dasha’s own work combines “moving images and indefinite stories,” such as Lemon Resort, her most recent work and a well deserved Vimeo Staff Pick for its absurdity. “Most of the ideas in Lemon Resort were born in the making process,” she explains. “The only thing that stayed from the beginning was the idea of creating a non-existent environment with strange rooms and habitants.” The final animation sees the animator build a digital resort of variable interiors. “Each room has its unique atmosphere and theme. For example, the “birdy room” has various types of birds in it such as paper, a statue, a portrait and a real one; the main inspiration behind the “unstable room” is a Rube Goldberg machine – a complex construction that is made out of objects/devices in order to create a domino effect.”

Dasha’s tendency to be attracted to a surreal and slightly silly narrative is due to her taste in favouring “things that don’t make much sense,” she explains. “So I focused on creating a surreal atmosphere and the feeling of an odd place. Such denial of normality lead me to an idea of making a lemon the main character.”

The animator’s work is overtly impressive when you consider that she is building her own world, with elements based on nothing in particular, more a combination of interests. “It was interesting to look at works of some architects from the 50s, who work with surrealistic themes, such as Ricardo Bofill, Luis Barragan and at some interior designers like David Hicks.” Another piece of work Besides was inspired by Philip Garner and his “playful approach to consumer products as he invented a completely new world,” she says. “In addition, I really like 80s Memphis design for its bright, juicy colours and brave ideas! In particular I was fascinated by colourful drawings of Nathalie De Pasquier…To sum up, I tried to use a little bit of everything! “

Big Finds a Trumpet is about a happy character called Big who annoys his friend Little with a trumpet he finds. “It’s about relationships… and basically the fact that the people you like most can sometimes be the most annoying,” says London-based Dan Castro who created the animated short.

Given a completely open brief by Columbia Records for The Shins’ latest video, Half a Million, directing duo Lamar+Nik took the chance to make something they’d always wanted to make. “We always had this idea of a sticker trail being animated, but the surroundings remaining live-action,” explains Jesse Lamar High, one half of the duo. “We hadn’t seen it before, and there’s something really fun about taking mundane things and making them exciting. Plus it’s accessible to everyone. It’s almost as if you and your friends are going around one day putting stickers in unexpected places.”

Big Buddy Blue tells the story of a trucker and his motorised best friend living their lives on the open road. Created by Zurich-based collective Team Tumult, the animation is part of a non-commercial initiative from Freitag, the manufacturer which creates a range of bags using the recycled tarpaulin from large lorries. The brand asked five different teams of animators to tell the story of “Freitag – from truck to bag” in completely different ways. “With our story, we tried to show that every Freitag bag already had a previous life which reflects the uniqueness of the final product and the wild soul that inhabits all of their bags,” explains Team Tumult.

Working in Tel Aviv and London, animator Daniela Sherer has lent her skills for The School of Life’s latest lesson that tackles the subject of forgiveness. Daniela has created shorts for the institution in the past and here she’s been tasked with visualising how integral forgiveness is for the continuation of social life.

Tel-Aviv-based illustrator and animator Yuval Haker has created an animated music video for Israeli musician Alon Eder’s track I Am Sex. The song was recorded entirely on an 80s style Casio organ and deals with sex, intimacy, love and anxiety. The American-British-Israeli animator created the video as part of his graduation project at the Bezel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and was given “complete artistic freedom” to interpret the artist’s song.

“Ever wondered how rad people are so rad?” asks animator Adam Black’s new film. “Now, being rad is easier than ever! Simply follow these steps and you too could be one of those rad people out there.” How To Be Rad opens with meditations on what defines a “rad” person from a selection of disembodied voices accompanied by a chaotic but mesmerising, array of morphing part-human, part-Frankenstein bodies.